in geography from the university of washington. a native of wisconsin, dr. erickson is the seventeenth president of penn state and plans to step down in 2014. no doubt much of his time in the next two years will be dealing with fallout from the scandal and restoring in state's reputation. please join me in welcoming rodney erickson to the press club. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for your kind introduction as well as your flexibility, rescheduling this event given the weather challenges of the week. i am honored to be here and appreciate your interest in kent state and hiring education. a special welcome to all the penn staters here along with those of you covering a educational issues. we need your continued engagement. thank you for joining us and bringing along the penn state cookies. according to google news there are 45,000 stories about penn state and jerry sandusky. you have written them, you have read them and i imagine most of you have formed an opinion about and state in our actions over the last year. but beyond the headlines there's ano